My impression is that spring has been slower to arrive in coastal Southern California this year. In examining records of the progress of my cutting garden, this conclusion seems abundantly clear. I'm blaming our recent weather, specifically our colder-than-usual winter temperatures.
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| This was my cutting garden on March 31, 2018 |
I got an earlier start planting this year's cool season garden. However, even though I planted many of the same species this fall as I did the prior fall, the plants are clearly running behind with respect to their bloom cycles. None of my foxgloves (
Digitalis purpurea) are blooming yet. I've had one
Ranunculus bloom thus far, in stark contrast to the numbers shown blooming in my photo from last March. Moreover, last year my snapdragons (
Antirrhinum majus) were blooming in mid-March and continued to do so through April. However, this week I gave up and pulled the last of them out due to a bad case of rust. I don't spray and my snapdragons inevitably develop rust but our frequent rain this year, while wonderful in many respects, appears to have accelerated the rust problem. I tossed out one batch of snapdragons in January, replacing them with new plants, only to watch those succumb to the fungus even more quickly.
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| This bed shows one snapdragon in the center of the middle bed. There were six more in the bed to the right (just out of view). |
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| All the leaves showed signs of rust and the plants hadn't even bloomed yet |
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| The plants in the other bed looked even worse |
I replaced the snapdragons with a few
Delphiniums, leaving empty spaces to accommodate the larkspur (
Consolida ambigua) and love-in-a-mist (
Nigella) seedlings that emerged in response to our rainy February.
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| This is one of the replacement 'Pacific Giant' Delphiniums. These plants surprised me last year by blooming well despite our exceptionally low rainfall. |
Meanwhile, like last year, the sweet peas I sowed from seed in late October have been slow to develop. Once again, they're showing signs of having been nibbled. Last year, I blamed the rabbits that showed up in my garden for the first time but now I'm wondering if birds aren't the actual culprits.
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| I baited for snails and slugs and saw no signs of either but I regularly discovered birds picking around in my raised planters |
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| The seedlings in this half-barrel fared better than those in the raised planter but there were signs of nibbling here too |
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| In contrast, these are the sweet pea seedlings grown by my neighbor along the boundary line on our shared back slope. She's done a much better job shielding her plants from all kinds of critters than I have and her plants are well-developed even though they're in afternoon shade. |
I'm hoping my cool season (winter-spring) garden gets a move on soon. I've already got
Dahlia tubers waiting in the wings for empty space to free up in the raised planters.
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| I received 7 dahlia tubers by mail order this week and have planted all in temporary pots to give me a head start on the warm season |
Tell the Truth Tuesday is the brain child of Alison at
Bonney Lassie. Feel free to join in and share some ugly truths about your own garden.
All material © 2012-2019 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party
